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WORK TITLE: Heroine Complex
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.heroinecomplex.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/276174/sarah-kuhn * http://blog.angryasianman.com/2016/08/dialogue-two-asian-american-fantasy.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 82098106
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n82098106
HEADING: Kuhn, Sarah
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PERSONAL
Female.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, and journalist.
WRITINGS
Author of the novella One Con Glory. Also contributor to comics anthology periodical Fresh Romance and the anthology Chicks Dig Comics. Contributor to periodicals, including Uncanny, Apex, Creative Screenwriting, the Hollywood Reporter, and the Oakland Tribune. Contributor to Web sites, including AngryAsianMan.com, IGN.com, and StarTrek.com.
SIDELIGHTS
Sarah Kuhn is a writer whose debut novel, Heroine Complex, is the first in a proposed series featuring Asian American superheroines and, in this case, a superheroine’s assistant. “I love stories about badass superheroines and tough lady demon hunters who look awesome in leather pants, but I always wonder who does their laundry,” Kuhn noted in an interview with Happy Ever After Web site contributor Joyce Lamb. Kuhn also noted that she “wanted to explore that messy, mundane side of superheroing.” Kuhn also remarked that she gathered inspiration from comic books and Hong Kong action movies. She went on to tell Lamb in the interview on the Happy Ever After Web site: “As the book started coming to life, I got really excited about centering Asian-American women who look like me in the story.”
Heroine Complex revolves around Evie Tanaka, personal assistant to Annie Chang, better known as the superheroine called Aveda Jupiter. The duo are based in San Francisco, where an abundance of superheroes and demons reside. Evie and Aveda have been best friends since kindergarten, when Annie protected Evie from bullies. Evie has been working for Aveda for years, handling almost all aspects of Aveda’s personal life, from cleaning her costumes to dealing with Aveda’s diva demands and tantrums. Meanwhile, Evie has problems of her own. Besides raising her teenage sister Bea, she tends to lack assertiveness and lets herself get bossed around.
When Aveda twists her ankle while fighting off demons, Evie ends up taking her place at events where Aveda is supposed to appear. When people at one of the events are attacked by demons, Evie helps fight them off and discovers that she has super powers as well. It turns out that this is not all that good for Evie, because now she is overwhelmed with work, family life, and the demands placed on a new superheroine. Furthermore, her diva superheroine friend Aveda starts to get jealous of Evie’s new-found fame, which Evie is growing to like. To complicate matters even further, Evie suddenly develops a crush on a a local mad scientist named Nate. Other characters include Maisy and Shasta, known as the Mean Girls, and whose sole goal in life seems to be making life difficult for both Evie and Aveda.
“Evie goes through real emotional stuff that is relatable–her changing relationship with her friend, a new romance, her new sense of self as she becomes more independent and powerful, and her strained relationship with her sister,” wrote a Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Web site contributor, adding: “Overall, the tone is bright and goofy and fun.” A Publishers Weekly contributor called the novel “witty” and also remarked: “Kuhn starts off the novel with vivacity and a tongue-in-cheek narration.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 16, 2016, review of Heroine Complex, p. 38.
ONLINE
Happy Ever After, http://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/ (July 7, 2016), Joyce Lamb, “Interview: Sarah Kuhn, Author of Heroine Complex.“
Heroine Complex Web site, http://www.heroinecomplex.com (February 26, 2017).
Penguin Random House Web site, http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ (February 26, 2017), author profile.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/ (July 5, 2016), review of Heroine Complex.
Sarah Kuhn is the author of Heroine Complex—the first in a series starring Asian American superheroines—for DAW Books.
Pitched as “The Devil Wears Prada with superheroes,” the first book chronicles the adventures of Evie Tanaka, a put-upon personal assistant who is forced to pose as her diva superhero boss and must embrace her own hidden talents in order to protect our world from a demonic invasion.
Also featured in this book: evil cupcakes, hot romance, and supernatural karaoke battles! Heroine Complex Book #1 is a Locus Bestseller, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award nominee for Best Urban Fantasy, and one of the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog’s Best Books of 2016! You can learn more and read an excerpt right here! And check out the exclusive cover reveal on io9!
Book #2 in the series, Heroine Worship, will be out July 4, 2017.
Buy Heroine Complex from your retailer of choice:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
iBooks
Powell’s
Mysterious Galaxy
Skylight Books
The Ripped Bodice
You can also add the book on GoodReads!
Sarah also wrote the geek girl romantic comedy novella One Con Glory, which has been dubbed “Pride and Prejudice at Comic-Con.” One Con Glory earned praise from io9 and USA Today and is in development as a feature film. Learn more about One Con Glory here!
Recently, she wrote The Ruby Equation (with artist Sally Jane Thompson) for the Eisner-nominated romance comics anthology Fresh Romance and is currently writing a series of Barbie comics (with artist Alitha Martinez).
Additionally, she has written personal essays on Sailor Moon cosplay, Asian American representation, and geek girl culture for The Toast, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, AngryAsianMan.com, and the Hugo-nominated anthology Chicks Dig Comics. A longtime entertainment journalist, her articles on everything from Oscar season to Vulcan mating rituals have appeared in Back Stage, Geek Monthly, IGN.com, The Hollywood Reporter, StarTrek.com, Creative Screenwriting, and The Oakland Tribune.
Sarah has been featured as a guest speaker at such events as the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and ComiqueCon and appeared on popular panels like San Diego Comic-Con’s “Geek Girls Exist,” “Super Asian America,” and “Sci-fi That Will Change Your Life,” GeekGirlCon’s “Geek Girls in Popular Culture,” New York Comic-Con’s “We Need Diverse Books: #WhitewashedOut in Books & Media,” and WonderCon’s “Not Your Sidekick: Heroes of Color” and “Building the Modern (Super)Heroine.” In 2011, she was selected as a finalist for the CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) New Writers Award.
She is represented by Diana Fox of Fox Literary. Email Sarah or find her on Twitter and Facebook. If you are press interested in covering Heroine Complex, please contact Alexis Nixon.
Sarah Kuhn
Photo of Sarah Kuhn
Photo: © CapozKnows Photography
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Kuhn is the author of Heroine Complex—the first in a series starring Asian American superheroines—for DAW Books. She also wrote The Ruby Equation for the comics anthology Fresh Romance and the romantic comedy novella One Con Glory, which earned praise from io9 and USA Today and is in development as a feature film. Her articles and essays on such topics as geek girl culture, comic book continuity, and Sailor Moon cosplay have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, AngryAsianMan.com, IGN.com, Back Stage, The Hollywood Reporter, StarTrek.com, Creative Screenwriting, and the Hugo-nominated anthology Chicks Dig Comics. In 2011, she was selected as a finalist for the CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) New Writers Award. You can visit her at heroinecomplex.com or on Twitter: @sarahkuhn.
Interview: Sarah Kuhn, author of ‘Heroine Complex’
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By: Joyce Lamb | July 7, 2016 12:01 am
Sarah Kuhn (Photo: CapozKnows Photography)
Sarah Kuhn (Photo: CapozKnows Photography)
Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Sarah! Please tell us a bit about your new release, Heroine Complex.
Sarah: Heroine Complex is all about the adventures of Evie Tanaka, the wallflowerish personal assistant to glamorous superheroine Aveda Jupiter (aka Annie Chang), who just happens to be her childhood best friend. Evie’s a classic sidekick type and has observed a lot of Aveda’s adventures from the sidelines, but over the course of the book, she’s forced to step up, take charge and become a superheroine in her own right. The book contains crazy action sequences involving things like demonic cupcakes and supernatural karaoke, exploration of complicated female friendships, and romance with an adorable bespectacled scientist love interest.
Joyce: What inspires your book ideas?
Sarah: In this case, the first thing that intrigued me was the idea of the superhero personal assistant — I love stories about badass superheroines and tough lady demon hunters who look awesome in leather pants, but I always wonder who does their laundry. Like, who keeps those leather pants looking so badass? Who cleans up all the inevitable messes that come with being a superhero and keeps said superhero’s life running smoothly? I wanted to explore that messy, mundane side of superheroing. I was also inspired by a lot of my own geekish interests, like comic books and Hong Kong action movies (the classic film The Heroic Trio is a running thread throughout the book). And finally, as the book started coming to life, I got really excited about centering Asian-American women who look like me in the story. I don’t get to see myself centered in stories that often, so writing something where Asian girls get to have fun and fall in love and have hot sex and eat junk food and do bad karaoke and just do all the things protagonists get to do was so thrilling.
Joyce: Do you have any particular rituals that help you get into the writing frame of mind?
Sarah: I’m part of a writing group in L.A. called The Shamers — we meet in coffee shops around town, work alongside each other, and generally “shame” each other into writing. I don’t know if this is so much a ritual, but I’ve finished many projects thanks to Shaming and it’s really grown into a community I could not live without — we have funny e-mail threads, we swap work for critique, we show up for each other’s events, we meet up sometimes to do a “read aloud” night of our work with actors. It’s easy to feel alone as a writer, like it’s just you and the page locked in endless battle. Having that sense of camaraderie and community means I always feel like this posse of awesome writers has my back.
Joyce: Who are three romance authors who turn you into a fangirl/fanboy?
Sarah: Just three?! I have so many! I love Nalini Singh and would probably turn into a quivering amoeba-like mass in front of her. I love how intense and passionate her characters are — you just can’t help but fall in love with them. I adore Victoria Dahl for the way she mixes hot sex with hilarious banter — and I love that her books often incorporate awesome female friendships. And I love Courtney Milan, whose books are so smart and witty and sexy — I love her historicals, but my favorite is her New Adult book Trade Me, which has one of those pairings where you’re just dying for them to get together; the chemistry just leaps off the page.
Joyce: Would you like to share a favorite moment from your writing career?
Sarah: Seeing my cover art for the first time. It’s by the amazing artist Jason Chan, and my jaw actually dropped when I saw it. I love that both Evie and Aveda look exactly as they are described in the book — not just in physical appearance, but also their personalities are conveyed so well. And the whole thing is just so colorful, vibrant, energetic, fun. Seeing two Asian-American ladies on a book cover like this gave me so many emotions, and I still get a thrill every time I look at it. I’m just like, “Those are my girls!”
Heroine Complex by Sarah KuhnJoyce: What’s your favorite snack and/or beverage while you’re writing?
Sarah: I’m addicted to onigiri/musubi — rice balls wrapped in nori and filled with some kind of deliciousness — which is one of the comfort foods I grew up with. Spam musubi is referenced a lot in Heroine Complex. When I’m at the end of a crazy revision or deep in a copy edit or just at a really intense point in the writing cycle, I go get a big bag of them and eat them like I’m Pac-Man.
Joyce: What TV show or other activity interferes with your writing schedule?
Sarah: I try not to let TV and the like interfere too much and use it more as a reward — like if I make word count, I get TV! One of my favorite shows, Unreal, just started a new season. I love the variety of complicated, prickly female characters on that show and their interactions with each other — and that the writers aren’t afraid to go to some truly dark and twisted (yet very human) places.
Joyce: What are three romance novels on your to-be-read list?
Sarah: I have a big stack I recently acquired from The Ripped Bodice, an awesome romance bookstore here in L.A., and a bunch more on my Kindle. Basically, my TBR list is totally out of control. A few I’m especially excited about: Nalini Singh’s latest, Allegiance of Honor — a big, beautiful hardcover. (I feel like Jane on Jane the Virgin when she says, “A hardcover! So decadent!”) Rebekah Weatherspoon’s So Sweet and So Right sound like so much sexy fun — she also runs WOC in Romance, which I’ve gotten a ton of great recommendations from. And Kate Meader’s Playing With Fire was a Ripped Bodice recommendation — I love that it has a firefighter heroine and TRB ladies really know their stuff, so I’m excited about that one as well.
Joyce: What are you working on now?
Sarah: I’m writing a few comics projects — the print edition of Fresh Romance, the romance comics anthology I’m part of, is coming out from Oni Press in August. My story with artist Sally Jane Thompson is called The Ruby Equation and stars a grouchy barista who also happens to be a supernatural being sent from another dimension to help humans find love. And I’m writing a series of Barbie comics for Papercutz that starts up in September. Oh, and Heroine Complex is the first book in a series starring Asian-American superheroines, so I’m currently working on the sequel to that! Book two focuses on Annie/Aveda, Evie’s superheroine best friend/boss from book one. So far, it’s just as much fun to write.
Joyce: Thanks, Sarah!
About Heroine Complex:
Evie Tanaka is the put-upon personal assistant to Aveda Jupiter, her childhood best friend and San Francisco’s most beloved superheroine. She’s great at her job—blending into the background, handling her boss’s epic diva tantrums, and getting demon blood out of leather pants.
Unfortunately, she’s not nearly as together when it comes to running her own life, standing up for herself, or raising her tempestuous teenage sister, Bea.
But everything changes when Evie’s forced to pose as her glamorous boss for one night, and her darkest secret comes out: she has powers, too. Now it’s up to her to contend with murderous cupcakes, nosy gossip bloggers, and supernatural karaoke battles—all while juggling unexpected romance and Aveda’s increasingly outrageous demands. And when a larger threat emerges, Evie must finally take charge and become a superheroine in her own right…or see her city fall to a full-on demonic invasion.
Heroine Complex
Publishers Weekly.
263.20 (May 16, 2016): p38.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Heroine Complex
Sarah Kuhn. DAW, $15 mass market (368p) ISBN 978-0-7564-1084-1
Kuhn's witty novel follows the trials and tribulations of Evie Tanaka, whose life is ruled by her boss, the diva superhero Aveda Jupiter. In a San
Francisco overrun by superheroes and demons, Evie manages a strict PR campaign to keep her boss and the public happy. This endeavor goes up
in flames when Evie attends an event in Aveda's place, is beset by demons, and reveals that she too has powers. Now tasked with the dual
responsibility of keeping up Aveda's image and holding off any more attacks, Evie's workload appears insurmountable. Kuhn starts of the novel
with vivacity and a tongue-in-cheek narration; the initial setup is imaginative. However, the novel soon becomes bogged down by all-too-familiar
patterns and cliches. Evie's quirkiness becomes commonplace after a few hundred pages. The romantic elements are similarly predictable. Kuhn
has envisioned a potentially complex world, but there is too little payoff for the novel to be satisfying. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Heroine Complex." Publishers Weekly, 16 May 2016, p. 38. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA453506776&it=r&asid=e81d90baac2f9ce2a4268346e1376862. Accessed 6 Feb.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453506776
BOOK REVIEW
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
by Carrie S · Jul 5, 2016 at 3:00 am · View all 7 comments
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
SBTB Media Page
Heroine Complex
by Sarah Kuhn
JULY 5, 2016 · DAW
Order →
B+
GENRE: Science Fiction/Fantasy
ARCHETYPE: Diverse Protagonists
Full disclosure: I’m super fond of Sarah Kuhn because I love her writing, her Twitter feed is the best, and she owns a dress with unicorns all over it. Also I’m going to be on a panel with her at San Diego Comic-Con. So I’m biased in her favor. But bias aside, I think it’s fair to say that Heroine Complex is incredibly fun.
Heroine Complex is told from the point of view of Evie Tanaka, who is the personal assistant of a superhero. While the world knows her boss as Aveda Jupiter, Evie knows her as Annie Chang. They met in kindergarten when Annie, who is Chinese, protected Evie, who is half Japanese, from bullies. Ever since then, Evie has stuck by Annie as Annie trained to become a martial arts style heroine and adopted the name Aveda.
When Aveda sprains her ankle while fighting demonic cupcakes, Aveda demands that Evie impersonate her while the ankle heals. As Evie spends more time as Aveda, her relationships with Aveda and Aveda’s team start to change. Evie resents all she does for Aveda. Aveda is jealous of Evie’s popularity. And Evie suddenly notices that their resident mad scientist, Nate, is pretty hot. Plus, Evie has always said that she just wants to live a normal life. But once she gets a taste of being a superheroine, she’s not 100% sure about that anymore.
I wouldn’t say that this book is the kind of super literary novel that will appeal to everyone. It’s about as “genre” as possible. It’s fun, with some emotional depth to keep it grounded. For the most part, this story is about Evie’s decision about who she is, and how she wants to live.
The story is also very much about relationships between women. There’s the relationship between Evie and Aveda, of course, and Evie and Evie’s teenage sister, and Evie and Lucy Valdez (Aveda’s personal trainer). There are also the Mean Girls, Maisy and Shasta, who make Aveda and Evie’s life as difficult as possible. If you crave superhero/comic book tribute stories that are based around multiple female characters, you’ll love this. The Bechdel Test is passed with flying colors. There are only two main characters who are male, and while they are supportive of the women in their lives they never take over or save the day – they are sidekicks, not stars.
The phrase “demonic cupcakes” should tell you everything you need to know about the tone of the book. Evie goes through real emotional stuff that is relatable – her changing relationship with her friend, a new romance, her new sense of self as she becomes more independent and powerful, and her strained relationship with her sister. There’s angst. But overall, the tone is bright and goofy and fun, inspired by comic books and wuxia films.
The romance is told entirely from Evie’s point of view and it’s satisfying and solid but more so for how it advances Evie’s character development than for any other reason. I loved it that Nate supports Evie and her choices, and that he helps her grow at her own pace. I also liked it that Nate and Evie eventually realize that they balance each other well. Evie is initially annoyed by Nate’s analytical nature, but she comes to appreciate the results he can obtain by being detail-oriented and precise and methodical. Nate comes to appreciate the fact that Evie sees things differently than he does, because in doing so she basically presents him with a new set of data. Ultimately they balance each other.
It’s too bad that the word “nice” has become such a watered-down word, because at it’s core this book is nice in the best sense – not bland, or boring, or treacly, but nice in the sense that it’s about working through difficult relationships by using clear communication and commitment and teamwork and basically learning to be a decent human. Most of the people in the book have hearts of gold, even when, like Aveda, they slip up and act like jerks. Evie is often a terrible communicator, but part of her character growth involves being more honest and direct, which allows her to heal and deepen her relationships with friends and family and allows her to have a romantic relationship that is truly nurturing and healthy (and also involves fabulous sex).
Above all, the book is fun. There’s a show down that involves Evie singing “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles, for crying out loud. There are karate kicks and haunted pianos and fabulous outfits, along with some fabulously awful outfits. Evie wears neon colored underwear underneath nondescript outfits and she loves Lucky Charms but won’t eat the purple marshmallow bits. These are characters who wind down by watching all the kung fu movies that star Michelle Yeoh, and by making spreadsheets, and by dissecting a demonic thumb. It’s geek girl heaven. The characters are ethnically diverse as well as believably flawed and relatable. Those flaws can sometimes be annoying but the characters do seem to get their shit together which is fun to watch.
This book is the first of a planned trilogy. However, it ends on a satisfactory note – no cliffhangers. You usually can’t judge a book by it’s cover, but honestly you can totally judge this book by its cover, which features two Asian heroines with obviously different personalities, a demonic cupcake (can’t get enough of those) and bright colors. If that cover causes grabby hand syndrome, then yes, you will adore the book.